Rice Paddy Art

The news recently showcased a photo of rice paddy art and I thought it was incredible. Farmers using different types of rice make fantastic images in their fields.

The trend was started in 1993 in Japan with complex designs pre-planned on computers. 700 people work to plant the different types of rice needed for each design.  Larger designs can span multiple fields and the farmers work together to make the designed rice quilt images.



Rice Field Art

Rice Field Art

Rice Field Art

Rice Field Art

Theater: Janis Joplin Musical by Richard

Recently, Frances and I enjoyed an outstanding, entertaining musical play: One Night With Janis Joplin, at the San Jose Repertory Theatre. This is the life story of Janis Joplin and how she became a rock star.

She lived and grow up in Port Arthur, Texas where she began her love for singing. Janis spent limited time attending college in Beaumont and Austin Texas. A friend asked it she would like to go to California and said yes, and found her self in the notorious Height Asbury area.

She and her music grow, which covered Soul, Gospel, Country, Blues and Rock.She found her calling in Rock Music. With talent, ability and hard work she became star. Her voice was unique and with her body language you could see her express many emotional feelings.

The length of the play was two and half hours. The music and singing were wonderful and enjoyable to watch and listen. The music even had the entire audience up swinging and dancing. This is a great play for any one to see.

This play is leaving San Jose Ca. and going to New York for a Broadway run next month. I wish them all well and success in the big apple.

[Editor's note: This story was written by Richard]

One Night with Janis Joplin
SJ Rep Playbill

Debt Ceiling

While browsing Guardian news on my touchpad, the intriguing headline, 'Solution To The Debt Ceiling Crisis', caught my attention. The article explained a solution which would allow the government to pay all current and future debts ad infinitum.

If authentic, our crisis of government shut down, caused by tea party members in the house of representatives who refuse to pass a budget funding the government so it can pay its bills, would be solved, and it could, would and should be used.

By applying Curry's Triangle Paradox, which was discovered by Paul Curry in New York City in 1953, the following example by Mariano Tomatis shows how the solution works by demonstrating how to make chocolate from nothing.

Everyone knows that there is no coulda, woulda, shoulda.

[Editor's note: There may be ads included on the video segment.]

How to create chocolate out of nothing

The Demise of Libraries

Libraries are beginning to go digital. It won't be long before books, with colorfully designed protective covers and numbered pages to turn and bookmark, will be a thing of the past. Books, as we have known them, are being displaced by electronic books. Many libraries are now offering eBooks and electronic reading and visual devices for checkout by persons of every age. There are even devices with games and educational materials that parents can choose for babies of very young ages.

While sitting at my computer, I browse the eBooks in my local library and download them to my HP Touchpad. I like the convenience of scrolling the choices at any time of the day or night and I never have to worry about returning it to avoid an over due fine. But it is sad to know that the joy of browsing the stacks and leafing thru the pages of a title to decide you want to read that particular book will soon be a pleasure of the past.

Ever since I learned to read, libraries have been a second home. The town I lived in as a child had a Carnegie library my siblings and I passed on the way to and from school. It was in those days that my sister, Adeline and I developed a life long attachment to libraries, not withstanding the disaster of our being so heavily in debt to the library when we were 7 and 8 years old that it took all one summer to pay off our over due fines.

Libraries were a free source of entertainment for us during the great depression and remained so over the years, enriching our lives beyond description. I have fond memories of listening to Adeline's library records of famous Broadway musicals as the two of us worked a jig saw puzzle over morning coffee when our children were in school.

Knowing books are on their way out hasn't stopped me from buying them though. I often shop the sale table in my local library and I order them electronically from time to time.

Carnegie Libraries are still in use today.

In 1992, the New York Times reported that according to a survey conducted by Dr. George Bobinksi, dean of the School of Information and Library Studies at the State University at Buffalo 1,554 of the 1,681 original buildings in the United States still existed, with 911 still used as libraries. Two-hundred seventy six were unchanged, 286 had been expanded, and 175 had been remodeled. Two-hundred forty three had been demolished while others had been converted to other uses.^[13]

Wikipedia: Carnegie library

So How Does YOUR Garden Grow?

A. Nonymus

Salad Bar?

Recently when I was 2nd hand shopping, I saw a wonderful old hanging sign that read “Salad Bar Open”. I have taken to calling the garden the 'salad bar' ever since.

All the neighbors have been enjoying the garden too – some are foodies and chefs, so we are all following and enjoying the developments in the farm / salad bar... and especially the herbs.

I'm sure glad I enjoy the gardening – I call it my 'therapy'. One certainly doesn’t do it for saving money, but for the love of it... otherwise who would create potatoes and tomato's that cost $25 each!!

Home grown veggies do taste better, and of course you know exactly what is in them. I really enjoy the process. There is just something deeply satisfying about playing in the dirt, and creating life. The harvest is the ultimate 'pay off', but I enjoy gardening so much I'd do it for free.... oh wait... I AM doing it for free!! OMG – sometimes we actually get what we wish for!

“Manga Manga – Abondanza!!”